Hairsprings on the brain

by Eric GreenbergMarch 29, 2018

When ClockSavant services watches, about 85% of the hairsprings in them have been previously bent and damaged. This greatly impacts watch accuracy and stability. In this example, the breguet overcoil hairspring is for a 1920’s one button Hahn Landeron chronograph. We were considering vibrating a new hairspring for this watch rather than restoring this hairspring; however, despite having acquired over many years a good deal of blank hairspring material, we could not find a suitable match and so we proceeded to painstakingly manipulate the hairspring back to its original form. The pictures provided here show the beginning hairspring and a few of the major steps in manipulation.

Hairsprings are the most fragile component of a watch. While they can be damaged in a fraction of a second, restoring them to proper operation can take hours and in some cases days. The skill required to manipulate and vibrate hairsprings can take years to master. Because the time required to correct a bent hairspring can quickly make a watchmaker's day unprofitable, these bent hairsprings are often left untouched by some watchmakers.

At ClockSavant, while correcting bent hairsprings impacts our profitability, it's more important to us to sleep at night knowing we did everything we could to restore a vintage watch to its original glory.